Seeing this place

Seeing this place, a collection of 20 paintings and charcoal drawings, is singer-songwriter John Coleman’s visual ode to the ephemeral and pervasive beauty of South East Tasmania.

Seeing this place is a visual celebration of South East Tasmania. The collection of oil paintings and charcoal drawings are companions to a new album of original songs exploring life in Tasmania, titled The amber and the flow.

“Nearly nine years ago I moved permanently to Susans Bay (SE Tasmania) and was able to convert the shed in our yard into a studio where I have been able to continue my writing and painting practices. The paintings, drawings and songs are for me a kind of thank you for the gift of sea and sky – hills and silence. While my songs are often narrative reminiscences, the making of my paintings has become my other way of “seeing”. The songs are emotional and conceptual but the making of the artworks is another contemplative way – a complementary and “slower” way. My practice is a response to the ever-present invitation to set aside circling thoughts and to dwell deeply in the “particular” – the small, the vast, the natural, the blue and the green and the patches of light – the lovely light. This deep looking and the subsequent creation feel more akin to bird watching and contemplation rather than an exercise of intellect and imagination. And so, my intention with this exhibition is to communicate something of the peace and beauty of this place where we live.

My landscape method is one that usually begins with a tramp along shores and bushland, stopping periodically to sketch and photograph. It’s about seeing and being affected by light, colour, smell and sound – the delicious immersion in landscape. There is always warm anticipation in this first stage. Back in the studio I will create one or two charcoal drawings that help me to know the contours and note the points of attraction for me. Often there’s a sense of discovery as I realise what it was that drew me to this particular aspect of land and sky – whether the transformation of light to hillsides and rock faces, the geometry of a green-black belt of trees above tidal angularities, or the thick green foliage of wetland forest above the little bird filled lake. And always the sky and the land are equal actors. Of course, then there is the painting – all the steps that occur before the final subtleties and the knowing that “it is done”.

I am seeing this place.”